A lawsuit against the federal government over 500 acres of land pits the village of Hobart
near Green Bay against the Onata Nation.
Hobart is within the Onata reservation and the tribe purchased 500 acres there, moving
it to trust status and to sovereign land, not subject to local taxes.
The Onata buyback is part of the nation's push to recover its original acreage, nearly
all of it lost when non-tribal people were allowed to purchase reservation land.
The Onata have now recovered nearly two-thirds of its 65,000 acres of reservation land near
Green Bay.
The village of Hobart is suing over the loss of its property tax revenue.
Its administrator declined to join us.
The nation chairman, Dehassie Hill, is here, and thanks so much for being here.
Thank you, Frederica.
So the U.S. Department of Interior is on your side in this, but how long and difficult has
this dispute with the village of Hobart, Ben?
Yeah, it's been going on for more than a decade as we acquire our reservation land back and
fee status and go through the process under the Bureau of Indian Affairs to have land
put into trust.
The process calls for input from local governments as well, and so they go through that process
and Hobart has elected several times, elected to appeal the process of putting land to trust
and we believe that their arguments have no merit.
How has the Onata nation been able to buyback its land in other places without such kind
of long standing and litigious difficulty?
Yeah, we've been doing this for a long time, and so we've been able to work with other
municipalities in the area to come to agreement about the home payment, I guess, for services
rendered to tribal trust land and fee land is to come about.
So if there is ambulance care, police service, and other services that the municipality or
the counties provide to tribal land in the agreement, we work all the balancing act of
what we provide and what they provide and come to a meaningful understanding and a payment
for that particular services rendered.
The Onata at one point lost nearly all of its treaty granted lands.
How was the tribe able to reverse that?
Well, it really stems back to the Indian Reorganization Act.
So under that, we were able to establish a governance system that the federal government
recognized more readily, and then also other federal regulations during the 1970s, and
so being able to acquire land back on our reservation and be able to have the ability
to put land to trust stems back to the multi-1970s and that reversal of federal Indian policy.
Why it is important to preserve your sovereign land?
Yeah, this is all that we have left.
So Indian tribes across this country have ceded millions of acres of land to the birth
of the United States, and in doing so reserved what we have left.
And so many of the tribes across the country are, like us, have a relatively small land-based
left from our original holdings, and so it is all that much more important to us because
this is our homeland.
This is where we raise our families, where we do business, where we grow our food, and
so every inch is important to us being able to maintain that control over what is left
of our lands.
How much has it cost to have to buy back your lands?
Oh, easily hundreds of millions of dollars.
Easily 20 years ago, you might have been able to buy an acre of land for $5,000, and
with the land prices now in this area anywhere from $15,000 up to $40,000 an acre.
So as time goes on, obviously the price continues to rise.
And yet, it's a cost that you must make.
That is correct.
You know, our people have really dedicated resources annually in our tribal budget to
face this land demand need for our community, not only does it provide economic development,
but it provides lands that are suitable for housing as well, and educational programs
and services, all this programs and services that we provide a lot of it depends on the
land.
What is your message to potentially non-tribal people who might think it's unfair to move
your reacquired land to federal trust status and not have it be subject to local taxes?
Well, I guess I would look at it as kind of the opposite, that this reservation was
established by treaty with the United States and treaties our supreme law of the land.
And so essentially, our reservation here was alone or rented to non-tribal people for
decades now.
And so they were able to use its resources, whether they're natural resources or to build
a home for their families and the such to use this land for a period of time.
And nobody's forcing them to sell their land to us as properties become available, and
someone has reached the end of their life that they want to spend in this particular
neck of the woods, then they decide to sell their land as it comes available, or night
of chooses to purchase it most of the time.
And so, you know, that's one thing, we're not forcing anyone out, we're just acquiring
land as it becomes available again.
All right, we need to leave it there.
Chairman Hill, thanks very much for your time on this.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
You know what I, what I never knew and I feel really dumb for not knowing this, maybe
it's taught to school children now.
I did not know that the Oneida worked with the Army in the Revolutionary War, and thereby
was granted, you know, what I didn't even know that, is that something that everyone
showed up?
Yeah, I don't know that they, it's sometimes taught, I guess I would say, usually when
you get into higher education, into college, First Nations Studies classes, it's probably
taught more there than anywhere else, but yeah, Oneida decided with the Americans during
the Revolutionary War and aided George Washington's Army at Valley Forge, when they were essentially
starving and freezing to death, and so we sent hundreds of acres, hundreds of bushels
of corn down there, and Polly Cooper was there to stay behind to assist their cooks
essentially how to prepare the food for consumption and essentially saving the army, starving
army.
Yeah, it's amazing, amazing history of course, and thank you again for joining us to talk
about this skirmish with Hobart.
Well, thank you.
All right.
Bye.